US: Bill Tracker: Protecting Benefits for Foster Youth (Requires subscription)
Imprint – February 13, 2024
The Imprint has reported quite a bit in the past few years on the use of federal benefits for foster youth to help state and local governments pay for foster care costs, a practice exposed by our colleagues at The Marshall Project and NPR in 2021. About 5% of all foster youth qualify for Supplemental Security Income benefits due to their own disability, or Social Security benefits based on the death or retirement of a parent, according to the Congressional Research Service. In the years since that investigative series, a number of states, counties and cities have adjusted their policy to limit the ability of child welfare systems to capture that money. And this year has brought a fresh round of proposed legislation on this issue.